Doughnut forming machine



NOV. 23, 1937. F MAlER 7 2,099,900

DOUGHNUT FORMING MACHINE Filed June 2,- 1936 3- Sheets-Sheet l Fig. i.

I I l A8 A9 A7.

A v I INVENTOR IQQQYRK Mam",

TT NEYS NOV. 23, 1937. F MA|ER 7 2,099,900

DOUGHNUT FORMING MACHINE Filed June 2, 1936 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 "Fig.3.

2% Km TL INVENTO Fn gerickM r, @1040, @wv,%v@m.

ATT N EYS Nav. 23, 1931. F. MAIER 2,0 ,9

'DOUGHNUT FORMING MACHINE Filed June 2, 1936 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR 45 waaig m Patented Nov. 23, 1937 UNITED. STATES PATENT orncs This invention relates to the bakery art and primarily to an apparatus for forming or shaping doughnuts, and like fried cakes.

It has heretofore been proposed. to mold or shape doughnuts by machine methods but their production has been a tedious and slow task and because of the construction of the machines, it has been impractical to deposit a large quantity of raw doughnuts into thecooking bath with suiilcient rapidity to insure uniform frying thereof. By the former methods, it has been the practice to remove the doughnuts as they become fried and since the doughnuts in the raw were deposited at wide intervals, it was'necessary to leave the remainder of the batch in the bath to continue frying, thus requiring the constant attention of the attendant without assurance that the entire batch of doughnuts will be uniformly fried.

The object of the present invention is to provide a doughnut former or shaper by which a large number of doughnuts may be expeditiously extruded and deposited in the cooking bath so that the entire batch will be subjected to the g frying action for substantially the same period and thereby insure uniformity in the finished product.

The invention further resides in the salient features of construction and their arrangements 30 and combination of parts by which the machine is rendered practical in design and economical in construction, and may be expeditiously cleaned and repaired.

A practical embodiment of the invention has 3 been illustrated in the attached drawings wheredepicting a slightly modified extruding construction;

Fig. 'l is a bottom plan view of the modified 50 form .of the invention wherein the design of the extruding port or mouth is altered for the production of bar-like doughnuts or sticks; and

Fig; 8 is a detailed perspective view of a part of the cutter operating mechanism useqln the amodiiiedshowinnand periphery of the rollers by springs I.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the improved Figs. 9 and 10 are perspective views oi. the doughnut sticks in the raw and fried state, re-.- spectively.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the numeral l designates a hopper in which a 5 batch of dough is deposited for feeding downwardly through the restricted throat 2 and between a pair of rollers l and 4, which latter further produce a kneading action upon the dough, preliminary to the same passing through 10 the extruding ports. Each roller is provided therebeneath with ascraper plate 5 the upper edge of which is resiliently urged against the' The plates have their lower edges pivotally supported in 15 seats I of transverse frame members I where they are removably held by these'springs.

The scraper plates define a downwardly flaring passage from the rollers to the extruding or -molding plate 9, which latter is provided with a mounting flange In that underlies the transverse frame members I and is adapted to be clamped thereagainst by laws H. The laws are provided with upright. extensions I! through which pass screws ll, their inner ends being designed toengage upwardly inclined cam'mingfaces I4 so that as the screws are turned inwardly, the jaws, II will be pulled upwardly toward the under side of the transverse frame members for firmly clamping" the'flanges N in position.

The doughnuts may be of the usual circular form and for this reason the extruding plate or die 8 is provided with one or more extruding nozzles It with circular ports for imparting a substantially like shape to the raw doughnut as it is extruded or forced therethrough, or the dough ports may lie-otherwise shaped. such as is shown at i! in Fig. "l, by which bars or sticks are formed. For ease of description theterm doughnut" is used in an inclusive sense to cover the bar or any other particular shape given to the molded product.

In order to properly distribute the dough as it comes from the rollers I and 4 a partition plate I8 (Fig. 6) may be disposed in an upright in the plate 0.

To complete the formation of the raw doughnut the extruded body is severed at intervals to give the desired depth of body to the doughnut. According to the present disclosure this severance is efleeted by a cutting wire I! which is supported under tension by resilient. arms 2| and is normally disposed in a plane slightly above the discharge end of the extruding nozzle 8. In order. to have the wire pass over the port I it is obvious that the wire will have to be additionally tensioned or sprung from its normal position and to accomplish this, means are pro vided to deflect the cutting wire downwardly for passage over the lower end of the port. This dei'lection is accomplished according'to the present disclosure by a camming surface 2| on the outer lower end of the nozzle 9 and in the path of the wire so that as the latter contacts such camming surface, the wire will ride thereon downwardly against the tension of the spring supporting arms-2t, so that at the time the wire passes over the discharge port It it will be suiflciently taut to shear oi! the dough with a clean cut and without tearing into or otherwise mutilating its given shape. The wire supporting arms 22 are carried on a slide or carriage 22 which is slidably mounted in guideways 23 formed Therefore, the molding plate is removable with the cutter slide as a unitto facilitate cleaning and repairing the same.

Means are provided for automatically actuat [ing the slide with the operation of the rollers 3 and 4. The latter may be driven by any suitable power, the present showing being adapted for manual power by a hand crank 25 which is fixed to a transverse shaft 26 iournalled in suitable bearings' on the body frame structure 21,. The shaft is interge ared with the rollers through the transmission 28 conveniently arranged adiacent one end of the shaft. Fixed on the shaft 2IisacammingdiscSI(Flg.4) whichisprovidedwith an upstanding cam 3| extending roller. To effect this oscillatory movement ofthe shaft 32 the latter isprovlded with a pair of follower arms 36 and 31, and the eifecflve portion of the cam I is of sufllclent length for a duration of operation such that the cam will leave one follower arm before acting on the companion followerarm to rock the shaft 82 in the opposite direction. Since the disc ll is being constantly rotated, there will be an alternate rotary motion imparted to the shaft 32, Min

the cutter carriage l. is supported by guidinglugs Ii and rollers 42, which guide parts are mounted on the molding plate It. Reciprocatory motion may be imparted to thecarriage by a crank arm 43 having its outer end connected to the carriage byalink- It so as to accommoda te the arcuate movement of the arm. This arm, like arm a, is fixed to the shaft 82 and has oscillatory motion imparted thereto in a manner similar to that heretofore described It is, therefore, desired to replaceably attach the arms 38 and 48 by apin 4! to permit interchangeability thereon Likewise the molding plates 8 and I. are interchangeable with their rmctive cutter carriages, and in this connecaoaaooo tion, it will be noted that the carriage 40 moves transversely of the machine and as distinguished from the movement of carriage 22.

In operation the dough having been deposited in the hopper I is fed downwardly between the rollers I and 4 and between the resiliently mounted scraper plates 5 to the extruding nossles I, the dough being distributed transversely of the machine by the upright. partition plate ll.

As the rollers are turned from the power shaft 26, the motion translating mechanism, embodying the cam ll and the. follower arms ll and 31, serves to reciprocate the cutter, carriage for side nozzle openings of the row, as by superimposing reducing plates II to overhang the nomle openings with a crescent exposure (Fig. 2), in order to extrude round doughnuts. These plates appear desirable for uniformity in product as extruded under pressure. Also it has been found better to enlarge the ends of the bar openings II in order to give the raw sticks the shape indicated in Fig. 9, because the fried product (depicted in Fig. 10) will cook to a' more uniform thickness throughout. Since the wires cut off the raw doughnuts-on each stroke across the nozzles, it will be obvious that the operator may expeditiously form his raw doughnuts and discharge them into the frying'bath inrapid order to avoid those first deposited being cooked to any great extent before the. remainder of the batch has been deposited.

To facilitate this depositing operation the doughnut former may be mounted upon a cranelike structure and provided with a handle II by It has been found bringing the cutting wires across the nomle ports which'it may be moved over the frying bath.

and by way of illustration this mounting may be accomplished by an arm having an (intersection 41 telescopically extensible in an inner section 4. into which it may be guided by frlction'rollers ll. This-supporting structure-form's apart of the subject matter of my co-pending application.

Consequently by the present arrangement the doughnut former may be moved or swung -irom a position away from the tank I. which contains the frying bath andthe dough supply replen ished. Thereafter the machine is returned to a depositing position over a frying bath and withquickly shaped into the raw domimuts, row

upon row. A splash plate l2 will protect the handfromthehotgreaseasthedoughnutsarc deposited.

While the present construction has been de-' 1. A doughnut forming machine comprising a.

frame having a hopper, an extruding plate removably supported on the frame beneath the hopper, means for feeding dough from the hopper through the extruding plate, said extruding plate having nozzles extending downwardly therefrom, and means movably supported by said plate for severing the extruded dough, said sever- :ngtmeans and said plate being removable as av 2. A doughnut forming machine comprising a frame having a hopper, a pair ofrollers receiving dough from the hopper, an extruding plate removably supported on the frame beneath the rollers, said extruding plate having nozzles extending downwardly therefrom, means movably supported by said plate for severing the extruded dough, said severing means and said plate being removable as a unit, and means on the frame for reciprocating said severing means, said reciprocating means being operatively connected to the severing means'in a manner to permit removal of the unit.

3. A doughnut forming machine comprising a frame having a hopper, an extruding die supported beneath the hopper, means for feeding the dough from the hopper through the die, means for clamping the die on the frame, a carriage movablv mounted on the die and removable as a unit therewith from the machine, means on. the frame detachahly connectedto the carriage for operating it and permitting removal of the unit and a cutter supported hr the carriage for severing the extruded dough.

4. A doughnut forming machine having a hopper, means for feeding the dough from the hopper, a removable extruding nozzle receiving the dough so fed, means carried by the nozzle for severing the extruded dough, and means for reciprocating the severing means across the nozzle.

5. A. doughnut forming machine comprising a frame having a hopper, an extruding die supported beneath the hopper, means for feeding the dough from the hopper through the die, means removabiy securing the die to the frame, severing means movably supported on the die and removable from the frame with the die as aunit, and means mounted on the frame for operating the severing mean, said severing means having a part interlocking with said operating means for establishing a driving connection therebetween and permitting disconnection of the severing means iromthe operating means when the unit is removed from the frame.

mmmaren Em. 

